(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel (PDP) apparatus and a driving method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
The PDP is a flat panel display that uses plasma generated by gas discharge to display characters or images and includes, according to its size, more than several scores to millions of pixels arranged in a matrix pattern.
Scan electrodes and sustain electrodes are formed in parallel on one side of the PDP, and address electrodes crossing them are formed on another side thereof. The sustain electrodes are formed corresponding to the respective scan electrodes, and ends of the sustain electrodes are coupled in common.
The method for driving the AC PDP includes a reset period, an addressing period, a sustain period, and an erase period, in temporal sequence.
The reset period is for initiating the status of each cell so as to facilitate the addressing operation. The addressing period is for selecting turn-on/off cells and applying an address voltage to the turn-on cells (i.e., addressed cells) to accumulate wall charges. The sustain period is for applying sustain pulses and causing a sustain for displaying an image on the addressed cells. The erase period is for reducing the wall charges of the cells to terminate the sustain.
A general PDP pixel has red (R), green (G), and blue (B) discharge cells. An address electrode is provided in a single discharge cell, and protrusions of the scan electrode and the sustain electrode face each other with a predetermined protrusion gap therebetween. A discharge cell is selected by an address pulse applied to an address electrode and a scan pulse applied to a scan pulse in an address interval. A discharge cell selected in the address interval is discharged by sustain pulses respectively applied to a scan electrode and a sustain electrode in a sustain interval.
Regarding a discharge phenomenon in the sustain interval, light emission at cathodes of scan and sustain electrodes is greater that at anodes thereof as shown in FIG. 1. Since the size of the cathode that manifests ⅔ of the total emission is the same as that of the anode in the prior art, an area for diffusing a discharge at a cathode is reduced, and the luminance is accordingly lost.